‘A love letter to Venice’: Venetian turns 25, plans major renovation

Venetian Resort CEO Patrick Nichols was an eighth grader in Minnesota when The Venetian opened its doors on May 3, 1999.

Now, as the resort celebrates 25 years, Nichols will oversee a $1.5 billion renovation of the iconic property’s more than 4,000 rooms.

“We’ve already started last year on a significant amount of capital deployment into the resort,” he said. “So the big present for The Venetian for its 25th birthday is a significant amount of investment in the resort.”

The first improved rooms will debut in September. It will take until summer 2025 to complete the job.

In addition, a $188 million improvement plan is scheduled for The Venetian Expo convention center, the property said. Workers already have completed improvements to the Grand Colonnade welcoming area with Sala 118, a nod to the 118 islands of Venice, featuring a new lounge and bar. The Venetian’s relocated poker room is expected to open this summer.

The Venetian and its sister property, Palazzo, which opened in December 2007, proved the integrated resort model — a property that includes multiple amenities in addition to a hotel and casino — devised by the late Las Vegas Sands founder and chairman Sheldon Adelson could be successful.

“The Venetian changed the paradigm of Las Vegas,” said Brendan Bussmann, a gaming industry analyst with Las Vegas-based B Global. “Conventional wisdom of the Strip said that model was not going to work, but Mr. Adelson defied those odds and created a sustainable model using MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), food and beverage, an all-suite product, and other amenities to reinvent the destination.”

The Apollo Management Group, a New York-based asset management group, acquired The Venetian, the Palazzo and The Venetian Expo from Sands for $6.25 billion in February 2022.

Canals and gondoliers

The Venetian provides an over-the-top experience with its Grand Canal Shoppes featuring water-filled canals dotted with singing gondoliers and recreations of Piazza San Marco and canal bridges.

“The Venetian was really created by Mr. Adelson as a love letter to Venice,” Nichols said in an interview. “He and Miriam (Dr. Miriam Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s top shareholder) honeymooned in Venice, and it was about bringing that experience back to Las Vegas. So travelers who maybe didn’t have the opportunity to get to Europe to see Venice could come and experience it here.”

Venetian employees also will participate in 25 Acts of Service with community partners this year.

Nichols said The Venetian has endured because the roughly 8,500 employees — 450 of whom have been with the company since Day 1 — care for the property and the community.

Rocky start

But the opening of The Venetian got off to a rocky start, said Rob Goldstein, chairman and CEO of Sands, who opened the doors with the Adelsons 25 years ago.

Goldstein can laugh about the challenges of the grand opening now, but it wasn’t too funny back then.

“We hired (Italian actress) Sophia Loren to cut the ribbon,” Goldstein recalled in an interview. “I explained to her that she would be staying at Caesars Palace as our guest. And she thought I was kidding because she said, ‘But I’m here to open The Venetian,’ and I explained to her that the rooms weren’t ready” and the county wouldn’t issue an occupancy permit.

“She was very wonderful, a very sweet and gracious woman. She cut the ribbon and rode in the gondola with Dr. Adelson and Sheldon. She was a lovely person, but she was confused by the fact that we were opening a casino but the rooms weren’t open.”

Experience breeds success

Goldstein said the experience gained with The Venetian in Las Vegas catapulted Sands’ success in Asia, where the Singapore property had one of its best quarters early this year and is poised for expansion.

The Venetian experience also has prepared Sands for its next integrated resort, and the company is an applicant for a downstate New York license and has its eyes on markets in Texas and Thailand.

Does Goldstein miss The Venetian Las Vegas?

“Of course. And when Sheldon made the decision to sell, I think it was very hard for him as well, emotionally. But you have to make business decisions based on the facts, and he did. The decision to sell was predicated on a lot of different factors, and probably the best and highest factor was the redeployment of capital into other markets, and the belief we could make more money. For example, in Singapore, we’re now making half a billion dollars more than we used to make on a cash flow basis. So we redeployed capital in Singapore, we’re going to redeploy capital, hopefully into New York, and perhaps Thailand.”

Will Sands ever come back to the Las Vegas market?

“There is nothing imminent, but never say never. You never know what the future holds. You can never say never to anything, can you?”

The Review-Journal is owned by the Adelson family, including Dr. Miriam Adelson, majority shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., and Las Vegas Sands President and COO Patrick Dumont.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.